Looks like I’ve gotta make an amendment to my lifelong to-do list. After hearing about some recent stories (in the last 4 months) coming out in the news regarding people who made games and got other people to play them in order to solve scientific problems, in recent weeks I have decided I have a new goal.
I would like to create a game. A game that actually looks and works like a game and is fun to play. However, the purpose of the game is to find the solution to some social, economic, or scientific problem.
In the story I read about, biologists used in-game information from the players, in order to collect data about how some protein folds or something like that. Though I may be mixing it up with a story from ten years back, when scientists used a distributed computing “screensaver” in order to solve some protein-folding problem. Well, I’ll post a link later if I can find it.
But anyway, here’s my amendment:
- Produce a Game- I have a lot of ideas in my head just waiting to be expressed. I have fantasized about being a Game Designer for years. My favorite game format is the Trading Card Game, but there are a variety of formats that appeal to me. I would like to produce at least one game that is purely recreational. However, I would like to also produce a game whose data can be used to solve a social, economic, or scientific problem.
By the way, consider this an open invitation to anyone who is aware of a problem that can be solved by data-mining/collection, repeated/automated action, distributed computing, or some other task that involving information that necessitates a lot of resources. Making a game to solve a problem would be great!
I have to say i’m little suprised.